--- title: "The United States Is Suffering Stomach-Churning Brain Drain" description: "In staggering brain drain, United States federal agencies have lost over 10,000 highly-experienced PhDs since Donald Trump took office." date: "2026-01-30" modified: "2026-01-30" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/experts-federal-agencies" categories: - "Education" - "Future Society" --- # The United States Is Suffering Stomach-Churning Brain Drain ![In staggering brain drain, United States federal agencies have lost over 10,000 highly-experienced PhDs since Donald Trump took office.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images* As Donald Trump has taken an [axe to US federal spending](), thousands of highly educated experts in scientific fields have left the government. In an astonishing reversal, the country which has historically benefited from the "brain drain" phenomenon is now experiencing it within its own government. Brain drain refers to circumstances in which [highly trained experts]() from underdeveloped and overexploited countries migrate to wealthier international job markets. Such loss of human capital [can be catastrophic]() for a nation's development, as a shortage of trained workers tends to strain critical sectors like healthcare and education. Now the United States government — which once fielded as many as [281,000 scientists and engineers]() — is experiencing a similar phenomenon. According [to *Science* magazine](), federal agencies have lost some 10,109 doctoral-level experts in STEM and health fields over the last year. Though the experts only make up 3 percent of the over 335,000 federal workers who've left federal positions in 2025, they account for 14 percent of the STEM PhDs employed by the government at the end of 2024. In effect, this represents a colossal exodus of specialized expertise from institutions important to public health, environmental protection, and scientific research. The effects are likely to be catastrophic — and the reverberations could be felt for decades. Though thousands of federal employees with scientific expertise remain, the departing doctoral-level staffers represent a sizable chunk of the federal workforce. At the National Science Foundation, an independent research agency, the loss of PhDs was so severe that they accounted for 40 percent of its workforce prior to the Trump administration's takeover. Notably, *Science* found that reductions of force [imposed by DOGE]() weren't the main driver of the exodus. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, only 16 percent of the 519 STEM PhDs who left in 2025 did so under the Trump administration's orders. Some agencies reported no forced PhD reductions whatsoever. Instead, many experts just walked. Per *Science*'s data, the most common reasons for PhD departures last year were voluntary quitting and retirement — scientists with decades of experience in their fields deciding they'd rather leave on their own than take part in Trump's [increasingly politicized]() federal government, which isn't in any hurry to replace them with incoming talent. In the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Services, for example, quitting accounted for over 60 percent of the PhD losses in 2025. The result is a government hollowed out from within. The loss of institutional knowledge is staggering, to be sure: climate scientists who've [tracked hurricanes]() for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, epidemiologists who [managed pandemic response systems]() for the CDC, and ecologists who [penned the country's environmental regulations]() are now adrift, either retired for good or searching for work at non-government institutions. Building back that expertise will be a feat — and that's assuming anyone qualified will even *want* to work for these agencies after watching how they've become political pawns under Trump. **More on the US:** *[Trump Says the Military Deployed a Secret “Discombobulator” Weapon in Venezuela]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()